"ALL WELL"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 26, 30 July 1938, Page 11

"ALL WELL"

AT PITCAIRN ISLAND

THE AKAROA REPORTS

Reunite proof that there is no truth in the report that the Pitcairn Islanders are facing destitution because no ships have called there with' supplies for six weeks has now been r/e----ceived in Wellington. It comes in the form of a radio message from the Shaw, Savill, and Albion -liner Akaroa, which left Auckland on July 19 for United Kingdom ports. The Akaroa reports: "All well. Called at Pitcairn Thursday morning. All well at Pitcairn."

The basis of the report was a cable received from New YoVk last Friday stating that Mrs. Dorothy Hall, a wireless amateur who constantly communicates with. Andrew Young, a wireless operator at Pitcairn, said that she "had informed the British Consul that the Pitcairn Islanders were facing destitution owing to a rumour that typhoid was raging on the island, causing all vessels to keep off. No supplies had been landed for six weeks. She said that the islanders insisted that there was no foundation for the typhoid report, and stated'that they were in a pitiful plight. '■ ;

Inquiries made at local shipping* offices when the reporrt was received showed that there had been several recent calls at the island, and the Tainui, which arrived at Wellington last Friday from Southampton, did not report that anything was amiss. How the report that the islanders were in such a bad way originated is still a mystery, but it is obviously false.